
The Australian political, military and legal establishments have been rocked this month by the publication of big investigation – known as the Brereton report – which states that Australian soldiers committed war crimes in Afghanistan. It identified 23 incidents in which 39 people were killed and another two people were subjected to cruel treatment by Australian special forces. All of the victims were either civilians or people considered ‘hors de combat’ – for instance prisoners of war.
To explain a bit more, and especially to tell us what happens next, we contacted Rawan Arraf, Director of the Australian Centre for International Justice.
If you want to read up on this, we also recommend Rawan’s own op-ed on the need for a permanent war crimes unit, our previous contributor on the ICC, Douglas Guilfoyle’s extensive summary, an interview with Shannon Marie Torrens, and a piece by Sonya Sceats on who else needs to face up to war crimes investigations.

This podcast has been produced as part of a partnership with JusticeInfo.net, an independent website in French and English covering justice initiatives in countries dealing with serious violence. It is a media outlet of Fondation Hirondelle, based in Lausanne, Switzerland.